Coming of age
by kittencupcake
Summary: The situation in Wutai has finally picked up again and Yuffie's been forced to act like a lady in order to stop any media embarrassments for her father.... so how are the rest of Avalanche going to react when they see her? title subject to change...
1. prologue

_HI EVERYONE!!! I haven't written a fanfiction for a little while (not since "All This and Vincent Too!" which was months ago) and I'm sorry for being lax. I changed my PenName but don't let that confuse you. smiles Anyway, here's a fic idea I've been toying with. Tell me what you think, ok??_

_(NOTE: Post AC. I refuse to acknowledge Dirge of Cerberus as proper storyline, no matter how much it amuses me.)  
_

**Disclaimer: **None of us here own Final Fantasy VII (I don't think)

Hence the reason we're writing fanfics and not doing cool nifty things with our money and gloating that we own one of the best games ever made.

* * *

**Chapter One****  
**_prologue_

Years had passed since the young Wutaian had seen any of her old team-mates. As the political situation was picking up in Wutai and people started to move there again in hopes of work, Godo had become stricter on her than ever. She'd been cut off from the outside world and drilled by various teachers from Wutai's finest finishing schools to try and persuade her to "look and act like a lady" as to avoid any media embarrassments. She no longer resembled the girl she'd been those years before. Banned forever were the shorts and sneakers, carelessly thrown over herself. Long gone was the dark tan that had crept across her skin after spending so much time fighting outside. She was scrubbed, brushed and polished within an inch of her life and finally looked like the princess everyone wanted her to be.

There was a long breeze, Yuffie shivered as she pulled strands of long black hair away from her face and quickly tried to make her way to the Seventh Heaven. Finally, she could see the sign in the window and the rest of Avalanche inside, laughing and conversing. She looked at her watch, she was half an hour late… hopefully they hadn't started eating without her. She walked in with a smile, dragging her heavy suitcase in with her.

Inside, the whole gang from Avalanche were waiting for her, a large table of food that Tifa must have slaved over for hours in front of them.

"D'ya reckon the brat's gonna show?" grumbled Cid, eyeing the food eagerly.

"For the last time, Cid, we're not eating until she gets here. She must have lost her…" Tifa paused for a moment, glancing at the girl in the doorway. "I'm sorry, but we're closed…"

A look of sheer shock hit Yuffie's face for a moment, then she began to laugh.

"You're not serious, right?" she giggled. Tifa nodded.

"Teef, it's ME." Silence. The entire gang was staring at her now and she felt heat rush to her cheeks. "I only fought with you guys to save the world. Twice." As the realisation hit everyone else in the room, she wanted to sink through the floor with embarrassment.

Cid finally broke the silence.

"Fuckin' Hell... the brat actually looks like a girl."

* * *

_Yes, I'm sorry this is so short. This is just a prologue so you guys can get a rough indication on my idea. As always, reviews are LOVE and are always appreciated. Especially feedback on what you think I should be doing._

_Keep reading!!_

_-kittencupcake xxx_


	2. Chapter 1

_Ok. Now for a chapter longer than a paragraph._

**Disclaimer: **I –still- don't own Final Fantasy. Damn,

* * *

When Yuffie joined with Avalanche, she was always treated like a nuisance and an outsider. So when she saw how they were treating her now, after all these years, she didn't know whether she should laugh or cry.

Her every motion was done with such grace (yes, grace. Yuffie Kisaragi was finally graceful) and feminity that the entire group couldn't help but stare at her the whole evening. They laughed and enjoyed Tifa's excellent cooking, but all of a sudden, Yuffie was suddenly being treated like a lady. Was it the long hair and the designer clothes or maybe the Wutaian accent that she'd picked up after years of being surrounded by people speaking nothing but Wutaian? Or was it perhaps the way she suddenly seemed so funny and intelligent? Every guy at the table was now very much aware of the fact that she was a girl and had a very hard time looking her in the eye… except Vincent, who managed to keep a straight face and treated her exactly the same as he always had done, like a real gentleman.

After the meal was over, she went upstairs for her much-needed rest, smiling at the idea that they were all going to be together again for an entire month, as well as the knowledge that she would finally be away from the watchful eyes of Godo and the media for this month. Ahh… life was great. She fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow, deciding that the sudden change in her comrade's attitude was because they decided she was an adult and had nothing at all to do with her appearance.

She awoke with a grin, the sunlight was streaming through her window and she was finally free to have fun without being scrutinised for her every action. She leapt out of bed and threw on her most casual clothing she could find, cursing the fact that she only had skirts and dresses. She settled with a flowing black knee-length skirt and a pale green top and opened her door to see Cloud waiting outside for her. She resisted the urge to jump and grinned at him.

"Morning, Spike." She winced as she automatically bowed at him, like she'd grown so accustomed to doing.

"uh… breakfast." He managed to blurt out. He kicked himself for not saying something more intelligent and a realisation his Yuffie, Cloud was being… shy?

She headed downstairs with him to see Tifa making pancakes and Vincent, Cid, Barrett and Reeve seated around a table.

"So when were you guys planning to wake me up, huh?" she asked jokingly, sitting herself down next to Reeve.

"So where's Cait Sith, anyway?" she asked after a while.

"Reeve really needed a real rest from his work" called Tifa from the kitchen, answering for him "…so we decided he should come here as 'Reeve' rather than 'Cait Sith'."

Yuffie's mouth formed a tiny 'o' and she leant over to him and hugged him affectionately.

"It's good to see you, Reeve." She grinned, eating a forkful of the pancake that seemed to appear on her plate out of nowhere. Reeve received glares from the rest of the table… minus Vincent, who appeared to be reading the newspaper. Finally Tifa sat down, done with the cooking.

"So Yuffie, I'm getting some shopping done today, would you like to join me?" asked Tifa slowly. Yuffie shook her head.

"I haven't changed that much since I saw you guys last!" she exclaimed.

_'oh yes you did.'_ Tifa replied mentally. "Well in that case, I guess you're free to go exploring by yourself, unless…" before she could finish the sentence, Cid cleared his throat.

"I'd rather chew off my own arm than go shopping, I get 'nuff of that with Shera… I'll go with ya…"

Now it was Yuffie's turn to stare, along with the rest of the people seated at the table. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

"Actually, forget it. I'm gonna go to the air show they're havin' at the city square." He added, embarrassedly. Barret nudged him slightly and chuckled to himself quietly, as did Tifa. Another awkward silence. Great.

"Uh… I actually want to go to the beach, I haven't had the chance to in ages." Said Yuffie with a smile, completely unaware on what would unfold during the day.

* * *

___Again, a relatively short chapter._

___It's not the most fantastic plotline, I know, but in all honesty, this is more of a boredom killer for me. Anyway, reviews are love Feel free to send any advice, critique, random nonsense, or whatever. I'll definitely read it _

___-kittencupcake xxx _


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Still not rich or Japanese. Damnit. I need to wish harder…. HARDERRRRRRR.

-cough-

_Yup. Another chapter. Hope you like this so far_

* * *

Yuffie walked along the sandy beach slowly, the cool breeze on her face and through her hair. She ran her fingers through it, tangling them in the emerging knots before giving up and gazing at the sea birds. She hated her current appearance, her father had gone out of his way to make sure she looked as her mother had many years before and scolded her for not behaving in the exact same way. She felt as though all of the life was being sucked out of her, suffocating on this new person who was being forced to inhabit her body. She almost hated her mother because of this, which made her want to scream and tear her hair out... however, she'd had different mannerisms forced onto her until they were reflexive, so she did nothing and continued to stare at the sky, wondering what the rest of her friends were up to.

Meanwhile, Tifa and Cloud were exploring the mall, Barrett and Cid were watching the airshow and Vincent was… somewhere. That's what she thought, anyway. In actuality, Barrett had been dragged into taking Marlene and Denzel to the fair, scaring the hell out of poor Denzel who had just worked up the courage to actually ask Marlene out somewhere, thinking it would be a date, while she in her naivety had invited her dad to come with her as she saw him so rarely. Cid was at one of the nearby bars, drinking himself stupid, Reeve was in a nearby café, reading a novel and relaxing and Vincent was at the beach as well… just further away from her. At the sudden realization that Yuffie was in fact a girl, they had all subconsciously felt a need to be near her to keep an eye on her, forgetting the fact that she had taken on some of the scariest things known to man in the years before.

She heard a wolf-whistle and turned suddenly, about to yell at the passer-by when she noticed who it was. Reno. She waved at him in the same exaggerated, childish way she had done years before her "transformation into a lady" and smirked as he choked on his cigarette.

"Jesus, Kisaragi… you've grown up." He managed to say, the same playful look on his face as ever. She smiled, he was the first person to treat her the same as he always had.

"You're still sleazy as ever, I see." She retorted, "What are you doing at the beach by yourself, anyway? Shouldn't you be out with the rest of your turkeys terrorizing people?"

"No, 'we Turkeys' don't terrorize the general public on our days off" he laughed. "What about you, no entourage of the nation's heroes trailing behind you?"

She shook her head. He looked at her in mock horror.

"Well in that case," he began, leering at her, "allow me to accompany you on your grand adventure of…" he looked around "what ARE you doing here anyway, saving the sea life from evil pirates or something?"

"Oh, of course, Reno. Evil never rests, remember?" she winked at him.

"Well it's going to have to for a minute, 'cause I'm gonna buy you the best ice cream you've ever tasted." And with that, he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the nearest ice cream parlour, both of them laughing.

* * *

Since the return of Sephiroth a few years before, they'd all been on relatively good terms with the Turks. After all, they –did- help with the fighting a fair bit themselves. They could almost be considered friends. Almost. Until they started asking uncomfortable questions, anyway.

"So I notice your daddy's done pretty well for himself lately" mused Reno, in between shovelling vast amounts of sticky pink icecream in his mouth.

"Well _someone's_ been reading the news."

"Nahh… not really," He scooped yet another spoonful of the delicious, melting mess into his mouth "we Turks just know these things" he said, winking conspirationally.

"Ahh… so you've been stalking me from afar…?" she joked

"Yeah, pretty much. It's kinda perverted, huh?" They both laughed at this.

They began the walk from the icecream parlour back to the beachfront.

"Is that…. Reeve?" asked Reno, squinting to see if he was making him out correctly. Yuffie tugged his sleeve and nudged him in the direction of the bar window in which you could clearly make out Cid.

"Stalkers!" she yelled out, giggling madly like she hadn't done in the longest time. She grabbed his hand and they started run, laughing and drunk on excitement She cursed herself for wearing heels that day as she pulled them off. Reno sighed, as if this was inevitable, and started to carry her.

"RENO, PUT ME DOWN!" she yelled loudly. People began to stare even more than they were before. He put her back on the floor gently, both of them failing to notice a paparazzi happily taking snapshots of this scene, and she jumped on his back, laughing manically as he ran around in circles until they both collapsed on the floor.

* * *

Yuffie finally headed back to the Seventh Heaven at around 6pm, creeping through the front door. Barrett, Denzel and Marlene still weren't back yet but sure enough, the rest of Avalanche were seated at the table again, a delicious smell emerging from the kitchen.

"Ahh… I'm exhausted." She said with a sigh.

"I noticed Reno was at the beach today," commented Vincent, still engrossed in the newspaper and not looking up. Reeve, Cid and Yuffie looked at him in surprise.

"What were you doing at the beach today Vinnie, huh?" she walked over to him, reading over his shoulder. Old habits die hard.

"It appears you have not changed that much over the past years," he chuckled.

"Like hell she hasn't!" replied Cid, despite the fact Vincent wasn't talking to him. "So what did ya get up to today, eh Yuffie?" he asked, everyone in the room knowing pretty damn well what she had actually been doing as they'd been watching her the whole day.

"Oh, you know…" she said breezily, "just exploring. I had some terrific icecream while I was there," the feminine tone back in her voice, but with an edge almost daring them to admit that they'd been watching her at the beach.

"Well I, for one, am GLAD that Yuffie had a great day." Said Tifa, appearing from the kitchen, smiling warmly and with no idea on what had actually happened that day.

Finally Barrett, Denzel and Marlene appeared through the doorway and they all started on the roast that Tifa had made, another culinary masterpiece that had probably taken hours to make. There was a grateful silence for a moment as everyone began to eat.

"Still, it was odd that Reno was down at the beach today." Commented Vincent "are you sure that you didn't see him there?" he looked at Yuffie pointedly. She choked on her forkful of chicken and quickly reached for her glass of water. He smirked at this, with a knowing look on his face. She returned a pleading look, _'please don't say anything' _she begged in her head.

"But then again, I may have been mistaken." He added before taking a sip of his wine.

'_thankyou,' _she mouthed back and changed the subject to 'that amazing ice cream parlour' and how they should all visit it.

On their way up to bed, she stopped Vincent in the hallway.

"Thankyou so much for not saying anything. I noticed that Reeve and Cid were at the beach as well… it was a little bit creepy, really." She looked down at his boots, still pointed and shiny as ever "…but I didn't even notice that you were there. Why were you out there?" she asked.

"I was making sure nothing happened to you." He said flatly "I had no intentions on making myself known when you were out enjoying yourself." She smiled at this.

"Well… thankyou for taking care of me," She bowed at him "but I'll be fine all the same. You have to come with me next time, ok Vinnie?" the same, childish tone was back in her voice for that comment and she looked rather taken aback by it, it was something instinctive… despite all the work that had been put into her transformation. Vincent smiled and patted her on the head.

"We shall see. Now go and get some sleep, miss Kisaragi."

She threw herself back onto her bed, feeling relieved that she could do such things here, without being scolded or stared at, and happily made her way under the covers. Tomorrow was going to be a great day, she could tell.

* * *

_Heehee end of chapter!! Reviews, people! Thanks for reading :)  
_

_Xxxx kittencupcake._


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Still wishing. Don't hold your breath, it could be hazardous to your health.

_Wheeee….. Every action has a consequence…. Yes indeedy._

* * *

There was a sudden crash as Yuffie's door was slammed open and she rubbed her eyes wearily to see a very concerned Vincent leaning over her on her bed. She pulled the blankets over herself self-consciously.

"…what's going on Vincent?" she asked, half asleep. He said nothing, but instead threw a newspaper onto her lap. She blinked a few times and read the headline.

'_PARTY PRINCESS ENJOYS BEACH HOLIDAY'_ her jaw dropped as she saw a picture of herself being piggybacked with Reno, screaming and laughing like a child.

"…oh shit."

"Language." He said, without thinking, "your father put me in charge of media control for you, hoping you wouldn't get into any trouble. I've already made them withdraw the story, so the public will never see this, but I fear that you will be followed by the media relentlessly from now on, they already know all this."

Yuffie held out her hand in front of his mouth, indicating he stopped talking for a moment.

"Ok, ok… so you're telling me that Godo asked you to help me watch out for media while I was here?"

He nodded

"…and that now I'm going to be hounded for the ENTIRE MONTH I'm here?"

He nodded again.

Yuffie read the entire story. The entire house was awoken when they heard her resounding scream through the house… they'd implied that Reno was her _boyfriend_.

Within thirty seconds, every person in the house had run into Yuffie's room, Vincent quickly hid the newspaper under her covers, hoping they wouldn't see it. What they –did- see, however, was her sitting on her bed, Vincent hovering over her.

"God damn, Vince!" shouted Cid "What the fuck d'ya think yer doin'?"

This looked bad. Really bad. She didn't want to get him in trouble, so…

"It's not like that! I wanted him here." It was about then that she noticed that his hand was under the covers of her bed. It was also about then that Tifa and Barrett dragged Denzel and Marlene out of her room, muttering furiously and (luckily) incoherently. Cid merely winked at Vincent and the rest of them all left the room, one by one, closing the door behind them. Excellent.

Glad that the spectacle was finally over, Yuffie had a long shower, took her time getting dressed and finally walked downstairs for breakfast. The entire Avalanche crew were waiting for her at the table, like angry bears. Tifa slammed a bunch of newspapers on the table and said nothing. Tears brimmed in Yuffie's eyes as she saw the article. Tifa softened her tone, realising that she was making Yuffie cry.

"So what's all this about, huh?" she asked, crouching and holding Yuffie's hand like she was a little girl. "These got sent to us anonymously… one for each of us. I know the media has a way of twisting stories so tell me what's actually happening, ok?"

"We're not going out or anything, I saw him at the beach so we just got icecream… that was all, honest!" she choked through sobs.

The jaws on everyone else in the room literally dropped as Reno appeared through the front door.

"The door was open, so I let myself in…" he started, his cheeky grin fading as he saw everyone else in the room except Yuffie glaring at him. Cid chucked one of the newspapers at him angrily.

"…oh SHIT." He blurted, rather eloquently.

"Not going out, huh?" demanded Tifa.

* * *

_Reviews are love!! LOVE!!!_

_Heehee amazing predicament, huh?_

_Xxxx kittencupcake._


End file.
